THIS WEEKEND Tween
girls sacked the competition over Super Bowl weekend as the music pic Hannah
Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert shattered
records and opened at number one at the North American box office. Debuting
in second with solid results of its own was the Jessica Alba creepfest
The Eye, but the comedies Over
Her Dead Body and Strange Wilderness
debuted outside of the top ten with more modest results. Overall, the marketplace
stayed strong with the top ten beating year-ago levels by more than 30%
for the third consecutive weekend.

Shooting higher than the loftiest of expectations, Disney's Hannah
Montana film commanded a sizzling $31.1M in ticket sales this
weekend, according to final studio
figures, from only 683 theaters for an eye-popping $45,561 average setting
a new record for the Super Bowl frame. Presented in digital 3D cinemas,
with 96% of the sites featuring RealD technology, the grosses were boosted
by most exhibitors charging $15 per ticket instead of the usual admission
charges. Still, the G-rated film more than doubled its nearest competitor
and sold out over a thousand showtimes during the weekend. The release
was not as wide as other films since Disney was limited to only those auditoriums
equipped with the necessary facilities to project in digital 3D.

Hannah Montana set a number of new
box office milestones although asterisks will need to be added to the record
books since it had the advantage of the higher-priced tickets. It was the
largest opening ever over Super Bowl weekend beating the $21.6M of 2006's
horror entry When a Stranger Calls,
and the largest overall weekend gross over this frame surpassing Titanic
which banked $25.2M in 1998 in its sixth weekend. The gross for the iceberg
romance would be over $36M at today's regular prices. Hannah
also set the record for the smallest amount of theaters for a film debuting
at number one.

Best of Both Worlds offered fans
many reasons to rush out and grab a seat. Given the star's 69-city sold-out
concert tour, the film allowed Hannah lovers an easier way to see their
favorite singer locally without having to get parents to buy scalped tickets.
Add in the digital 3D presentation and the promotion of an exclusive one-week-only
run and ticket buyers wasted no time in making sure they got their stubs
and showed up. An event film was born. Due to the incredible demand, the
studio has now announced that the film will be open-ended and will play
beyond the initial seven-day run.

Sales were exceptional right out of the gate with Friday delivering
a stunning $8.6M in business. Saturday saw incredible strength with matinee
business from kids going on their parents' first day off from work with
sales surging an amazing 52% to $13.1M. Sunday dropped by a mere 28% to
$9.4M. Most studios suffered larger-than-normal declines of 60-70% on Sunday
because of the Super Bowl.

Studio research indicated few surprises in the audience turnout. Females
made up a whopping 84% of the crowd and those under the age of 25 accounted
for 70%. Reviews were generally upbeat for the trim 74-minute concert film
which allowed theaters to schedule plenty of showtimes over the weekend
to absorb demand.

Hollywood's annual Super Bowl weekend horror offering had to settle
for the runnerup prize. The Eye, a
remake of a Hong Kong horror hit with Jessica Alba anchoring the U.S. version,
bowed to $12.4M from 2,436 locations for a solid $5,101 average. The PG-13
pic about a blind violinist who gains supernatural visions of death after
an eye transplant played slightly more to young women as the audience was
56% female, according to studio research. Lionsgate grossed $4.9M on Friday,
edged up 16% to $5.7M on Saturday, and fumbled 69% on Sunday to $1.8M.
The Eye debuted with more than twice
as much as Alba's last thriller Awake
($5.9M) and was close to the $13.7M launch of her recent romantic comedy
Good Luck Chuck.

Fox's 27 Dresses held steady in
third place and played as a great non-football alternative for women by
grossing $8.5M in its third weekend. Katherine Heigl's hit comedy dipped
by just 36%. Cume for Dresses now sits
at $57.2M. Another funny gal from the Fox stable, Oscar nominee and Entertainment
Weekly covergirl Ellen Page, rose a notch to sizth with Juno
which collected $7M, off only 31%, for a robust $109.8M total.

The studio's spoof comedy Meet the Spartans
tumbled by 60% in its second session and placed fourth with $7.3M. Budgeted
at $18M, the PG-13 laugher has taken in $28.5M in ten days and should conclude
with $40-45M putting it in the same neighborhood as the creative team's
Epic Movie which grossed $39.7M at
this same exact time last year. Close behind was Sylvester Stallone's action
pic Rambo with $7.1M falling a similar
61% from its debut. Lionsgate has taken in $29.9M in ten days and may finish
with close to $45M.

Taking in $6.7M was the Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman joint venture
The Bucket List which slipped 36% pushing
the cume to $67.5M for Warner Bros. Diane Lane's crime thriller Untraceable
suffered a sizable sophomore slump falling 55% to $5.1M for a sum of $19.1M
after ten days. Produced for over $30M, the R-rated pic is set to end with
a mediocre $30-35M.

Cloverfield crumbled another 62%
in its third weekend to $4.8M giving Paramount $71.9M to date. The studio's
specialty division Paramount Vantage expanded its Academy Award contender
There Will Be Blood from 885 to 1,507
theaters and rounded out the top ten with $4.7M. Off a scant 4%, the Daniel
Day-Lewis drama upped its total to $21M.

A pair of new comedies opened to disappointing results outside of the
top ten. Eva Longoria Parker headlined the pic Over
Her Dead Body and bowed to $4M from 1,977 sites for a weak $2,036
average. The New Line release about a ghost who haunts her fiance's new
squeeze marked the first headlining role in a feature film for the Desperate
Housewives star. Paramount Classics countered with the nature flick
Strange Wilderness starring Steve Zahn
which debuted to just $3M. The R-rated title averaged only $2,485 from
1,208 locations. Both films were trashed by critics, to nobody's surprise.

Two other films dropped out of the top ten this weekend. The Nicolas
Cage blockbuster sequel National Treasure: Book
of Secrets took in $3M, off 40%, for a $209.8M cume after its
seventh session. The adventure saga ranks as the ninth biggest hit released
in 2007 and will surpass 300's $210.6M
by the end of the week to climb one more spot. Look for Book
of Secrets to conclude with $215-218M domestically representing
a 25% increase over the first National Treasure's
$173M from 2004. Worldwide, Secrets has
already hauled in over $375M to date.

Not collecting as much treasure was the heist comedy Mad
Money which fell 57% to $2M in its third weekend. With $18.5M
in 17 days, the Overture Films release should finish with roughly $22M.

The top ten films grossed $94.8M which was up a sensational 44% from
last year when The Messengers opened
at number one with $14.7M; and up 24% from 2006 when When
a Stranger Calls debuted in the top spot with $21.6M.

Compared to projections, Hannah Montana
surged well ahead of my $17M forecast while The
Eye bowed very close to my $14M prediction. Over
Her Dead Body was close to my $6M projection and Strange
Wilderness was on target with my $3M forecast.

Check the NEW updated Film Database with box
office grosses for films released over the last twenty years.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.